Senate Dems will filibuster Trump’s Supreme Court nominee no matter who it is in what is only the second time in modern history that the Senate has mounted a filibuster against a nominee.politico.com(See also First 100 Days)

President Trump rallies conservative allies around his Supreme Court nominee, including NRA's Wayne LaPierre, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Charmaine YOest of American Values, David O'Steen of National Right to Life, and Paula White from New Christian Destiny Center.nydailynews.com(See also First 100 Days)

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch scales back description of pro bono work at Harvard.wsj.com(See also First 100 Days)

2017.02.15

Conservative group pressures Democratic Sen. Tester on Trump’s Supreme Court pick with a commercial that begins by accusing the senator of being too liberal on immigration and healthcare.washingtonpost.com

The Supreme Court agreed to allow a limited version of Trump’s ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect and will consider in the fall the president’s broad powers in immigration matters in a case that raises fundamental issues of national security and religious discrimination.washingtonpost.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Legal Activity)

2017.07.14

A federal court judge agreed once again to partially halt the ban of certain foreign nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries on a nationwide basis - a direct rebuke to the government's attempt to limit the close family members allowed in the US - allowing "grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States" to gain entry into the country.cnn.com(See also Legal Activity, Muslim Immigration Ban, Syria, Iran, Yemen)

2017.07.20

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Kentucky lawyer John Bush to a lifetime federal appeals court seat, despite his political blogging where he wrote that the “two greatest tragedies in our country” were slavery and abortion.buzzfeed.com(See also Women, Legal Issues)

2017.07.27

Donald Trump is moving at a furious pace in early nominations for judicial vacancies and open US attorney slots, which will have a significant impact on the shape of American law for decades.businessinsider.com(See also Legal Issues, Federal Departments)

2017.09.12

The Supreme Court reinstated disputed congressional and state voting maps in Texas, blocking two lower court rulings that said the Republican-backed district lines were the product of racial discrimination.bloomberg.com(See also Racism)

The high court action is a victory for Texas Republicans, who defended the districts and sought Supreme Court intervention. It’s a blow to minority-rights groups that sued to challenge the maps.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court let Donald Trump’s travel ban take full effect while legal challenges go forward, allowing the US to bar or restrict entry by people from six mostly Muslim countries, even if they have a relationship with a U.S.-based person or institution.bloomberg.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Muslims, Nationalism, Racism, Iran, Yemen, Syria)

2017.12.19

The collapse of three of Donald Trump’s judicial nominations in the span of a week has embarrassed the White House, revealed weaknesses in its vetting process and threatened to cause Senate Republicans to apply more scrutiny to the president’s picks.washingtonpost.com(See also Legal Issues, LGBTQIA, Corruption)

2017.12.22

Donald Trump's third attempt at implementing his travel ban — issued via a September proclamation — again violates federal law, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled on Friday.buzzfeed.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Immigration)

2018.01.16

The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it will ask the Supreme Court to immediately review a federal judge’s ruling that ordered the government to restart a program that shields some young illegal immigrants from deportation.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Department of Justice)

2018.01.19

The U.S. Supreme Court set up a major showdown over presidential powers, agreeing to decide the legality of Donald Trump’s latest travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries.reuters.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Legal Issues)

2018.03.26

The White House has laid out a plan to fill the courts with judges devoted to a legal doctrine that challenges the broad power federal agencies have to interpret laws and enforce regulations, often without being subject to judicial oversight.nytimes.com(See also Legal Issues)

2018.04.17

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a law subjecting non-citizens to deportation for crimes of violence is unconstitutionally vague, handing the Trump administration an early defeat — thanks to the vote of Justice Neil Gorsuch.usatoday.com(See also Legal Activity, Immigration)

2018.06.11

A federal judge sharply criticized the Justice Department’s argument that Donald Trump’s financial interest in his company’s hotel in downtown Washington is constitutional, a sign that the judge may soon rule against the president in a historic case that could head to the Supreme Court.nytimes.com(See also Legal Activity, Conflicts of Interest)

2018.06.11

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in favor of Ohio's decision to kick thousands of registered voters from its rolls for not voting in recent elections and failing to respond to a notice from state officials.axios.com(See also Voter Suppression)

2018.06.26

Centers and clinics established to persuade women to continue their pregnancies cannot be required to tell their patients about the availability of state-offered services, including abortion, a divided Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision.washingtonpost.com(See also Women, hea, Health Care)

2018.06.26

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump’s ban on travel from several mostly-Muslim nations, saying that the president’s statutory power over immigration was not undermined by his history of incendiary statements about the dangers he said Muslims pose to Americans.nytimes.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Immigration, Legal Activity, Muslims)

2018.06.27

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced that he will retire, setting in motion a furious fight over the future of the Supreme Court and giving Donald Trump the chance to cement a conservative judicial philosophy on the American legal system for generations.nytimes.com

2018.06.28

Justice Anthony Kennedy's son, Justin, was the global head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank, helping loan Donald Trump more than $1 billion at a time when other banks were wary of doing business with him.nytimes.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Trump Business)

Marc Short, Donald Trump’s legislative affairs director is heading for the exits just as the White House gears up for a major Supreme Court nomination battle and approaches a daunting midterm election landscape.politico.com(See also Resignations and Dismissals)

2018.08.02

The National Archives said it will not be able to produce the full cache of documents requested by the Senate on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh until the end of October, but Republicans indicated they would press ahead with plans to hold confirmation hearings next month.washingtonpost.com(See also Hypocrisy)

2018.08.10

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings will start on Sept. 4, a schedule that tees up the GOP to meet its goal of getting Donald Trump's pick seated on the high court by the time its term begins in early October.politico.com

2018.09.04

The Trump White House, citing executive privilege, is withholding from the Senate more than 100,000 pages of records from Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s time as a lawyer in the administration of former President George W. Bush.nytimes.com(See also Unprecedented Actions)

2018.09.06

As a White House lawyer in the Bush administration, Judge Brett Kavanaugh challenged the accuracy of deeming the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to be “settled law of the land,” in an email.nytimes.com(See also Women)

The email, written in March 2003, is one of thousands of documents that a lawyer for President George W. Bush turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Supreme Court nominee but deemed “committee confidential,” meaning it could not be made public or discussed by Democrats in questioning him in hearings.

2018.09.12

As the fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court unfolded this summer, consuming most of the oxygen available for judge-related punditry and spurring millions of dollars in ad spending by outside groups, the Senate confirmed more than two dozen of President Donald Trump’s judicial picks to lifetime appointments with little fanfare.buzzfeednews.com(See also Legal Issues)

2018.09.16

Earlier this summer, Christine Blasey Ford wrote a confidential letter to a senior Democratic lawmaker alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago, when they were high school students in suburban Maryland.washingtonpost.com(See also Women, Misogyny)

The letter, written in crayon, is in the style of something you might see an elementary school kid send to his crush, with “will you be my girlfriend” and boxes marked “yes” and “no.”

2018.09.18

Donald Trump falsely charged that Democrats had sought to time a sexual assault allegation against his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, to obstruct his confirmation.nytimes.com(See also False Statements, Women)

2018.09.25

Donald Trump accused Democrats on Tuesday of orchestrating “a con game” against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh in hopes of stopping his confirmation to the Supreme Court and said that one of two women who have accused him of sexual misconduct as a student was “all messed up” and “drunk” at the time.nytimes.com(See also Women, Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.09.30

The F.B.I. moved to quickly complete an abbreviated investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, even as Democrats demanded more information about the inquiry’s scope, warning that its apparent constraints could make it a “farce.”nytimes.com(See also Women, False Statements, Fascism)

2018.09.30

The FBI has received no new instructions from the White House about how to proceed with its week-long investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, despite Donald Trump tweeting the contrary.nbcnews.com(See also False Statements)

The government had asked the Supreme Court to block questioning of Ross as part of a lawsuit filed by several states, including New York, and civil rights groups. The groups are seeking to stop the administration from adding a citizenship question to the decennial count.

The Trump administration again asked the Supreme Court to step into the legal fight over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on Monday, urging the justices to decide this term whether the government has the power to end the Obama-era immigration policy.rollcall.com(See also Immigration, Legal Activity)

2018.11.21

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary, rebuking Donald Trump for calling a judge who had ruled against his administration’s asylum policy “an Obama judge, saying that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role.nytimes.com(See also Fascism)

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” he said in a statement. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Trump administration's request to let it enforce its new asylum ban while the case makes its way through the courts.buzzfeednews.com(See also Legal Activity, Immigration)

In a 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined his more liberal colleagues in denying the Justice Department's stay request to implement the ban which would bar migrants who enter the US without authorization from requesting asylum.